PEER honored First Responders Appreciation Day on July 23 at the California State Fair with a demonstration of the PEER shaking table. The exhibit was a great opportunity to share literature about PEER & earthquake preparedness for families & communities, the PEER-UC Berkley lab and the College of Engineering lab.

The purpose of this exhibit was to provide hands-on experience with structural construction, lab-demonstration to test structures to dynamic earthquake loads, and give participants the opportunity to improve models after testing and to discuss topics such as tsunamis, fire, infrastructure and lifelines.

Participants watched videos of the various labs in action and marveled at the Cal Seismic Design Team’s 5 foot balsa wood tower model, which won 3rd place at the 2015 Annual Seismic Design Competition.

The PEER exhibit was extremely popular with kids & adults, and our staff of 6 was active during the entire session. We met folks from CAL-OES, Sacramento CERT, Department of Water & Power (our exhibit neighbors), and responders from various counties. Watch a building design on the shaking table.